Friday, April 22, 2016

Very happy with the kiln and feeling friendly with it now - easy to use Bartlett V6 controller - is marvelous compared to all the other controllers I've been using -

Highly recommend to Canadians the Tucker - Cone Art Kiln - well made (we bumped and pushed this baby up stairs - into a car and then into the studio and it held up well) repair to coils easy - so very happy with my used purchase

Yes just more bottles for now but I think that will be it for a couple of weeks - want to work on some nice bowls - or other items

the pile is really growing - hope to do more of those crystal holders soon

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I sat in front of my torch - and cleaned the area a bit - so I could end up there on the weekend too

will be off to the creative festival on Saturday - just to relax and enjoy some fun with my 6 year old grand daughter

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Too much epoxy - too thick epoxy - it ran to bottom and accumulated- too much - and it seeped into near the base because it was too thick - you can see the fatish top edges where too much epoxy

but I beat it up and got a pretty nice result on the outside - - its thicker the bottom but that wont stop me from putting a small glass and candle in the center

Today mix is less (did a full 2 cups yesterday ) today is only 1 cup in total and even that seems to be too much for one candle - I did 1/2 cup of part A 1/2 cup part B and 1/4 (just under the rim ) of methyl hydrate - was a pretty thin mix

Poured 1/2 cup of the mixture onto the tile

when I finished pouring - I still had 1/2 cup left - so will see if 1/2 cut thinner is too much as well - I think I may be heavy handed here thinking I need lots - but tomorrow we will see

so next batch for a single will be 1/4 cup of A 1/4 cup of B and will see if the need to 1/2 the 1/4 cup of the methyl hydrate - will have to see how it ran

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Materials:
EX70 resins - 1:1 ratio - I got at Curry's Art Supplies - I will sub with my own resins but wanted to follow the instructions as closely as I could for the prototypes
Methyl Hydrate (alcohol) for thinning - you want it a bit thinner to run down into the glass
SmallBucket - I got the 1/2 bucket at home depot
Lots of broken tempered glass - this took one bit tote /2 shoe box totes to fill the 1/2 bucket
Mixing stick - clean - dollar store wooden spoon - dollar store brush - (I prefer the wooden spoon)
Container to mix in -
table cover - poly plastic is good the epoxy wont stick to polyethylene -just in case
5 x5 tile - all I could find at HOme depot was a 4-1/4 x 4-1/4 white tile for this project

single tote double tote (not quite full )

So very anxious - I had broken my glass during the week and put into the tote ( so as of now I have basically 3 shoe box size totes filled with broken tempered glass

I put into the pail and filled to just below the rim so that I was not overflowing (I still have to put in resin and I didnt want a mess)

So bucket is filled and pressed down and I bounced it a couple times for it all to settle

I brought it inside - as its too cold to pour outside (epoxy likes heat to cure ) Put the tile on top (ceramic shiny side down ) and pushed down on it so it was seated well on top of the broken glass

Now - from the video I cant tell how much he used for each candle - so its a guessing game

I want to make more than I need in this case - as I'd rather have too much than too little

so I measured on a mason jar - 1 cup of water and poured into the jar and marked it - then put another 1 cup in and marked it to show the 2 cup mark - emptied the water and dried the jar

I poured the part A in first to 1cup mark - cleaned the spout and put the cap back on
I poured the part B in to the 2cup mark - cleaned the spout and put the cap back on
I poured about 1/4 cup - just a little less of the methy hydrate (this wil et me know how far it seeps down - if not far enough then I'll need maybe the full 1/4 cup next time

Mix - mix - mix

I tore a piece of cardboard from a box to use as spreader

Poured onto center of the tile and slowly pulled to all sides to seep down - poured more
till what I thought was enough - the guessing part

so now I can see what I have left - after the pour

will see how far it seeped - and gauge my next measure based on the results - so fingers crossed tomorrow I see something that looks like one of Rick's candle holders
and off to dollar store today for glass inserts for the candles

once its out I still have to seal the piece - and I may use some alcohol inks to color - will have to see

but what does not stick or covered in resin can be resued on the next candle - which means I should have enough for a 2nd candle ! tomorrow

I was up early 5:30 - could not stay in bed 1 minute longer - its only 32 degrees out but thats not bad and we expect it to go over 65 today

I prepped the kiln

put down a sheet of thick fiber paper - I think its the 1/8 - I have a big roll and I like it better as I can get so many firings out of one sheet

so I set up only three bottles - one on either side and one in the middle - to check for hot spots
I probably could have done more but for now this will do - its more I want to be sure it fires ok

the middle has a piece of lava cloth under it for texture on the clear bottle and the side bottles are just plain

I put small pieces of fiber brick under the necks with fiber paper as well- and one underneath each side end of the base sheet in case of rolling- so it doesn't roll to the sides

I programmed the Bartlett last night with a basic bottle fuse to 1465 - and I have to say this is the easiest controller I've had to set - no up and down arrows etc just key in the number - and so straight forward for programming - going to love this kiln

so once the kiln cover closed it was time to hit the start button
start time: 6:05 actually its 7:05 (did not spring forward on this clock )

started at 46°F -

waited for the clicking and saw 47 next -

so in 1 hour I will go back and check - (probably not - will venture there before as I still need to work cleaning the area up from shifting everything for the kiln - I will do this all day - every hour to be sure and check how long its taking to do a batch

so very happy to hear the clicking - now hope that the coils are ok and the probe but will keep my eye on it

Went up close to an hour and its at 575 - so its rising and working ! yeah

Thursday, April 14, 2016

It was such a nice day and when I got home from work I decided to start to make sure I didnt need anyting

opened the panel moved over a couple of breakers to make room for the 60amp - put the new lug on the ground bar and installed the breaker

I assembled everything and turned on the light and then turned on the kiln - YIPPEE its installed !
was a nice sunny 50 deg F - and the weekend is supposed to be warmer - so need to figure out the bartlett controller for saturday morning

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

what a mess .......and this is just at the front of the building and one corner - moved some things around just to make my way into the kiln again - so hopefully that gets installed this week end

decided to break the sheet of tempered glass - it was 18" x 8 ft - got out a sheet of tarp and sort of wrapped it and gave it a wack with a hammer - holy cow is it strong I hit it at least 5 times before I gave a mighty wack and it finally shattered - stepped on it to break it down to smaller pieces (with my runners on of course)
I need more to make the candles, some small buckets and the small 5" tiles and I can give it a try

so the weather is breaking - I need to make some copper sheets for a customer and clean up some more - I have to move my comfy chair out and down to the house - as its in the way - boo hoo (I am going to have to see if I cant keep it there - I want so I can sit and wait for the kiln to be ready

Yes I got to go to the dump on the weekend and dumpster dive looking for wine bottles - and got to use my little gripper I got from the dollar store - worked like a dream
scored over a dozen bottles

my table is filling up - I like to take the labels off to speed things up come sprint

I also scored on friday at my local glass place - they do tables, shower doors etc and get old tempered glass - the bin I have is from broken they had and I got a 1ft by 8ft peice of tempered I have to break